BOXING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 10

BOXING.

THE GAME GOING BACK. \ t The Stadium authorities have not c made any move in the direction of approaehing the world’s welter-weight ( champion, Mickey Walker, to visit < Australia to fight Harry Collins, as- ( suggested in these columns last week

,(states the Referee). Evidently they , are content that the game should wan- ‘ der along in the same lifeless fashion to which we are rapidly becoming accris_ •

tbmed. Apparently, too, no attempt is f to : be made to lift it from the deep hollow into which it has sunk. The position will become worse instead of better, and the time may soon, be at

hand when there will he no contests at all because of the lack of public patronage. If champions will not come to Australia, good boxers will have to be brought here to uplift th© sport—and quickly, too. ROUGH HOUSE IN BRISBANE. ; Billy Shade, American heavy-weight boxer, passed through Sydney recently, bound for Melbourne from Brisbane, with his high opinion of Australian sportsmanship badly rattled. A section of tlie Brisbane fight crowd gave Billy a bad time during his recent contest with Max Gornik in that city. Beer bottles were thrown at Shade on two occasions, and, according to him, one whizzed by his head when he had Gornik beaten on the ropes., “Once,” said Shade, “I had Gornik down when a bottle crashed into the ring. The referee stopped counting while he picked up the broken glass. The second bottle was thrown later. “And,” added Shade, “I had Gornik all in when the fight was stopped. The Police Inspector said afterwards that he had no intention of stopping the contest. The referee mistook his signal.” This, apparently, was the nearest approach to a “rough house” the Australian ring has experienced for many years. Time was when happenings of the kind might have been expected, because the. control of the crowd was not so strict as is the case nowadays. Years ago. when finish fights were the ■ rule in this country, there were unpleasant incidents at moments when the friends of a palpably beaten man would go to his assistance by causing a diversion.